Text: Romans 3: 19-24<\/p>\n
There will come a time when everyone of us will stand before the Lord. \u00a0How do you feel about that prospect?\u00a0 Too many ignore it.\u00a0 Well today we remember a man who was terribly afraid of what that day would bring.\u00a0 He knew God is holy and calls on us to be holy.\u00a0 And he knew his sin.\u00a0 He knew his guilt before God. \u00a0His conscience gave him no peace.\u00a0 So he turned to the Christian church of his day.\u00a0 And where did it point him?\u00a0 To works, to his own efforts. \u00a0Here\u2019s where that left him.<\/p>\n
My own good works availed me naught,
\nNo merit they attaining,
\nMy will against God\u2019s judgment fought
\nNo hope for me remaining,
\nMy fears increased till sheer despair
\nLeft naught but death to be my share
\nAnd hell to be my sentence\u00a0 (M. Luther-CW 377 v. 3)<\/b><\/p>\n
But God had mercy upon this man.\u00a0 He showed him something the church had sadly corrupted and buried under a godless pile of man made teachings.\u00a0 The Gospel of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And here in this letter to the Romans, the Holy Spirit brought Martin Luther that peace that had escaped him.\u00a0 A blessed truth that warmed his heart and gave him hope.\u00a0 A truth that he could not keep to himself.\u00a0 That a sinner like you and me could be right with God through faith in Jesus Christ and what he has done , what he has done <\/b>for us and all people.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s spend time in this precious Word that Luther so treasured.\u00a0 Let\u2019s spend time in this precious word that brought about a great Reformation of the church. Let\u2019s spend time in this precious Word that answers for us this question:<\/p>\n
How can we Stand before the Lord?<\/b><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The young boy was clearly in the wrong.\u00a0 He had taken an item from the store shelf and shoved it into his pocket.\u00a0 When they got home, his parents found it.\u00a0 What is this here?<\/i>\u00a0 He wanted to make up some kind of excuse. But he knew his parents would see through it.\u00a0 You took this, didn\u2019t you?<\/i>\u00a0 The young boy stood there speechless, guilty, with no defense.<\/p>\n
God\u2019s Word divides the world into two groups of people.\u00a0 Jews and Gentiles. The Jews, the children of Abraham, had a special blessing.\u00a0 God gave them his Word and his promises.\u00a0 God also gave them his Law. He spelled out his will for their lives.\u00a0 Love God before all else.\u00a0 Love your neighbor as yourself. <\/i><\/p>\n
The Jews were blessed to have God\u2019s law written down for them.\u00a0 It set them apart in a special way. \u00a0And Paul speaks of them here. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law\u2026<\/span> That was the Jewish people.<\/p>\n What did that law say? What did it reveal in their hearts and lives?\u00a0 It revealed the same kind of thing that lived in the hearts and lives of the gentiles.\u00a0 It revealed what sadly lives in us as well.\u00a0 A sinful nature from which comes words that hurt or teardown, a sinful nature that can lash out in anger, a sinful nature that is greedy and only cares about me. A sinful nature that too often poisons our thoughts.<\/p>\n You see, Jew or Gentile, black or white, yellow or brown, we all share a terrible oneness.\u00a0 Paul writes of it here, there no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (23) <\/span>God\u2019s standard is way up here and I am way down here.<\/p>\n That leaves us like that young boy who stood there red faced and silent before his mom and dad. \u00a0God\u2019s law leaves us speechless before God. <\/b>\u00a0And yes here in our lives we may try to excuse ourselves with statements like I couldn\u2019t help it<\/i> or See what you made me do<\/i>. But standing before God, we have no excuse.\u00a0 Standing before God there is no one to blame but me.<\/p>\n So Paul speaks of the terrible oneness we share. 20\u00a0<\/sup>Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God\u2019s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.<\/span> (NIV 2011)\u00a0 That\u2019s why we speak of the law as a mirror.\u00a0 The law makes us conscious of sin.\u00a0 It shows us as we are.\u00a0 Not righteous, not holy, not what God demands, but far from it.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what Luther could see. That\u2019s all Luther could see in the church of his day. A sinner without hope.\u00a0 A sinner dangling over a real place called hell.\u00a0 For God\u2019s law leaves us speechless.\u00a0 So how can we stand?<\/b><\/p>\n If I had a trumpet, I would blow it now to read this verse.\u00a0 I have to think the apostle Paul must have praised God every time he had the opportunity to share this truth.\u00a0 It\u2019s like a person buried in the rubble of a fallen building, helpless, waiting to die, but then a voice , a light, what joy!<\/p>\n How can we stand?<\/b> \u00a0We can\u2019t on our own.\u00a0 We are fallen sinners. 21 <\/sup>But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. <\/span>22<\/sup>This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe<\/span>.\u00a0 So how can we stand before the Lord?\u00a0 Stand and live in the forgiveness of God in Christ.<\/b><\/p>\n A righteousness FROM God.<\/span> It is so important to understand what Paul is describing and not describing.\u00a0 It\u2019s not as if we suddenly become righteous people who always do what is right.\u00a0 We still fall into sin. No this righteousness from God is something else. \u00a0God says, you are not guilty before me.\u00a0 You are free of sin, free of guilt and the punishment it deserves. We call that justification.\u00a0 Someone described it this way. God looks at you just as if you never sinned.<\/i> A righteousness from God.<\/p>\n A righteousness from God<\/span> to which the Law and the Prophets testify<\/span> We heard that in our Old Testament lesson where the LORD said through his prophet Jeremiah. I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.<\/span>\u00a0 God promised his people that he would do what we cannot. Someone hurts us or offends us. We might forgive them but we cannot forget. Yet God promises He will forgive and forget<\/b> the ugliness in our lives. \u00a0We won\u2019t hear about it again when we stand before our God. I will remember their sins no more.<\/span><\/p>\n Not because of what we have done.\u00a0 Not because we are pretty good people. \u00a0We\u2019re not.\u00a0 We\u2019re all prodigal sons and daughters.\u00a0 Rather we can stand because of God\u2019s goodness and because of what Christ has done.\u00a0 Listen.4<\/sup>[We] are justified freely by his grace.<\/span>\u00a0 It\u2019s a gift of his doing. We are justified\u2026 through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.<\/span>\u00a0 That\u2019s what made it possible for our guilt to be forgiven and forgotten.\u00a0 Christ has redeemed us. The Son of God took our guilt to the cross — and not just ours but the guilt of every person you see.\u00a0 He took that guilt and paid the price with his own blood. \u00a0And when that price was fully paid, he cried out, it is finished <\/span>and died. \u00a0Then what? Then God raised him from the grave as if to say,\u00a0 Amen. It is true.<\/i>\u00a0 You can know. Your sins are paid for.<\/i><\/p>\n And how is that yours?\u00a0 Through faith.\u00a0 By grace you have been saved through faith.<\/span>. A simple trust in what God has done for you in Christ. And that\u2019s how we can stand:\u00a0 Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling<\/i>.\u00a0 That\u2019s how you can stand. On Christ, On Christ the solid rock we stand. We stand and we live in the forgiveness of God in Christ.\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n So today we thank God for courageous men like Martin Luther. God used them to restore that blessed truth to the German people, then throughout Europe.\u00a0 Then here in North America. Did you know the first book translated into the language of Native Americans\u00a0 was Luther\u2019s Catechism.\u00a0 It\u2019s a great History, a great chapter of His Story. Not Luther\u2019s but Jesus and his Word.<\/p>\n But now visit Europe. \u00a0You see mosques in places they never stood. \u00a0And the churches are all but empty.\u00a0 People rarely set foot in them.\u00a0 And if they do there there\u2019s no guarantee they would hear this blessed truth.<\/p>\n What about us?\u00a0 What we have here is a treasure. \u00a0The Gospel in Word and Sacrament.\u00a0 Forgiveness and Peace with God in Christ our Savior.\u00a0 The sure hope of life and victory over death.\u00a0 What we have here is a treasure.<\/p>\n But get careless with a treasure and you know what can happen.\u00a0 God takes it elsewhere.\u00a0 He moves on.\u00a0 He moves to another place, another people. \u00a0But how then could we stand?\u00a0 Friends, stand, keep standing in the forgiveness of God in Christ.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text: Romans 3: 19-24 There will come a time when everyone of us will stand before the Lord. \u00a0How do you feel about that prospect?\u00a0 Too many ignore it.\u00a0 Well today we remember a man who was terribly afraid of what that day would bring.\u00a0 He knew God is holy and calls on us to be holy.\u00a0 And he knew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":486,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions\/486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}